


Of Innocence and Deals

by Araminia16



Series: Of Growing Up [5]
Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: Awkward Conversations, Eleven and Mike have the Talk, F/M, adorable teen romance, lots of blushes, mentions of periods, so pure it hurts, tickle fight
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-17
Updated: 2017-11-17
Packaged: 2019-02-03 11:52:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,977
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12747759
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Araminia16/pseuds/Araminia16
Summary: Eleven goes to school after her first weekend of nothing but misery and girl time and introduces the rest of the party to her new problem. But when Mike and she get back to his house to do homework the conversation takes a little turn much to Mike's embarrassment.





	Of Innocence and Deals

My muse loves having feedback. It made her super excited to put out another chapter. All the reviews and kudos make me really excited to write for not only myself but for you guys too. I hope this chapter is on par with everything else! :)

XxOxX

Eleven had taken some more Tylenol in the morning and changed her pad again. This period business was really messy and Eleven still didn’t feel clean despite her shower in the morning before Hopper dropped her off at school. 

Mike was waiting in his customary spot and jumped up to examine her. His gaze assessed nearly every inch of her face and a cursory glance at the rest of her. “Are you okay?” He was worried about her.

She gave him a small smile and nodded. “Yeah. I’m fine.”

“Are you sure? Are you still hurting?” 

She thought of his warm hand pressing on her belly and a slight blush colored her cheeks despite her not really knowing why. “I took some of those pills that Nancy told me about. It doesn’t hurt as bad now.” She shrugged.

Mike, seemingly satisfied with her response, offered his arm to her and she looped hers through it. He escorted her to her first class, which she did not share with him. It was a sore point for both parties but at least they had nearly every other class together and that was the only good thing about going to school. The rest of it was boring and people constantly stared and whispered to each other. If they weren’t going to listen to the teacher then they should just leave. It made concentrating hard. 

“I’ll see you for second period, okay?” He gave a quick kiss to her cheek and released her arm before rushing off to his first class of the day. 

The bell rang just as she sat down with her bag next to her seat. She crossed her arm over her stomach and pressed down on her lower belly to alleviate the cramps that had just started up again. If it was going to be like this every month for forever she wasn’t sure if she wanted it anymore even if it meant she could have babies. 

Time dragged on and on and when the bell rang she nearly ran from the room to meet up with Mike and the rest of the gang at second class. She must have looked miserable because the moment Mike saw her his face went from amused to instantly worried. 

“Hey, El. Are you feeling okay?” Dustin asked her.

“I--.”

“She’s okay. Just a bit of a stomachache is all.” Mike cut in and she gave him a strange look. The ‘friends don’t lie’ look but Mike gave her an ‘I’ll explain later’ look and she sighed before going into the classroom and taking her customary seat next to Mike along the wall. The rest of them were arranged in what she thought was some sort of human blockade. They still hadn’t heard anything from the bad men who were after her but Mike was always on everyone about being prepared. 

The school day dragged on until lunch time and Eleven was eager for some kind of food to eat and it was getting time for her next pill, not that she thought they were doing very much anyway but it was better than nothing. 

“You sure you’re okay?” Dustin asked again when everyone had sat down at their table. 

“I’m having cramps.” Eleven told him as she opened up her milk carton, before Mike could stop her. When she heard no reply she looked up and found his eyes were rather wide, and taking a glance around the table everyone else’s eyes mirrored his except Mike, who looked done with the rest of them. 

“Oh. Uh. Sorry about that.” Dustin stuttered out. 

“It’s fine. Nancy told me about it. It’s my period. It’s apparently going to happen every month.”

“Yeah. And it’s not something we usually talk about.” Max offered, looking a little embarrassed as well.

“Why not? Have you gotten yours yet?”

Max nearly spilled her drink all over her lap as she flailed around, “I…Uh…” She glanced nervously at Lucas. 

“If you haven’t it’s probably coming.”

“Hey. El. What did you think about math today?” Mike was trying to steer the conversation away from scary female bodily functions. 

“It was fine.” She paused to take a bit of her meal, which tasted much like flavored mush. “Will, has your mom talked to you about sex yet? She talked to me about it when I was at your house yesterday--.”

Mike clamped a hand over her mouth softly and she turned to stare at him questioningly. 

“Not here.” He hissed out, and Eleven noticed that he was turning a rather dark shade of pink from his cheeks down to his neck. That was embarrassment. He was embarrassed about her talking about sex. Was it a bad thing? 

Eleven nodded and he took his hand from her mouth, but his blush only got worse. A quick glance around the table only revealed that everyone else had turned some variation of red or pink, except Will, who was a rather paler shade of pale. 

So Eleven went back to her meal and they ate in silence until the bell sounded. 

The rest of the school day was awkward to say the least. It wasn’t until later in the day that she was able to talk to Mike back at his house. 

Eleven stayed there Monday and Wednesday nights to study and wait for Hopper to get off his late shifts. He felt better if she wasn’t alone. 

They were in the basement, working on homework when she thought to test out the subject again. “Was it a bad thing I told them about my period?” 

Mike glanced up at her, “It’s not bad. But guys don’t usually like hearing about all that stuff.”

“Why?”

“Well most of us think that it’s gross.”

“It is gross.” Eleven made a face. 

“Yeah but girl stuff is way beyond a lot of us.”

“Not you.” 

“Yeah well I’m still a little shell shocked from Saturday myself.” He glanced up at her. “It’s one of those private things. Stuff we don’t talk about to everyone. A secret.”

“Oh.” She murmured. “Is sex a private secret too?”

Mike stopped writing in his notebook. “Uh. Yeah. It’s really private.”

“Why?”

“Well…because… It’s a private thing.”

“Did your mom talk to you about it?”

“No! No. We learned about it in school. Mostly.” Mike could only shiver in horror at the thought of his dad, at least, sitting him down and talking about sex. His mom had at least told him not to do it. The rest of his knowledge, albeit limited, was from listening to the older teens at school. And even their broken conversation left him a little confused all on its own. 

“Joyce told me that it’s supposed to be special. And that you can do it with someone you love.” She wrote down the answer to another problem. 

“Yeah.” Mike agreed absentmindedly while trying to think through his own math problem.

“Do you love me?”

His gaze snapped up to meet hers, “Yes. I do.” His voice held a gentleness and conviction that warmed her from her head to her toes. 

“Do you want to have sex with me?” The question was spoken with eager innocence.

His eyes went wide. “What? No!” It was half shouted in shock. 

And at once that warmth cooled and left her a little empty feeling. Her chest hurt a second later and she felt tears start to form in her eyes. “Oh.” Her tone, dejected spurred Mike to reach across the table for her hand. 

“That came out wrong. Don’t cry. Please don’t cry.” Mike begged. “What I meant was that I don’t want to have sex right now is all. We are just kids. That’s something that you have to be older to do. It doesn’t mean I don’t want to have sex with you ever.” He soothed, and a part of him was honestly wondering how in the world he was having this conversation with his girlfriend. Most guys, even ones his age would be jumping at the chance for their girlfriends to offer sex. Not that he hadn’t thought of her on occasion in the dark of his room at night but that was different. So different. “And I really don’t even know that much about it anyway.” 

“But you do love me?”

“Yes! More than anything.” He promised her. And he did. Those 353 days without her tore at his heart and soul like nothing else ever had before. He had been empty and anger and bitterness filled that emptiness over time while all his hope faded away day by day that he would ever see her again. It had only been a few days but the mark was still there like a brand. 

“Joyce said that you have to be older to have sex too. How much older?” She was still curious, bright eyed and smiling like this wasn’t the most awkward conversation they had ever had in their lives.

“Like a lot. My sister’s already done it with Steve and Johnathan.” He made a disgusted face. “But at lot of the time people get married to do that. Marriage means that you want to be with that person forever. It’s a promise.” God he was starting to sound like one of those romantic guys in movies that she liked. 

“Why did she do that with both of them? Can you love more than one person?” She sounded confused.

“Sometimes I guess. I can’t imagine loving more than one person though.” Mike shrugged. 

“When can we get married?”

“Probably not until we get done with High School.” Mike squeezed her hand. “If you want. I have to get you a ring and stuff like that before it happens.”

“If it means we will be together forever.”

“Yeah. Of course.” Mike couldn’t imagine a life without her in it. That year they were apart was like he had died. But before she had come into his life he didn’t feel like he had missed anything. 

“Promise?”

“Promise. Just don’t talk about anything like sex or periods in front of everyone else anymore, okay?” 

“Deal.” Eleven laughed, which turned into a squeal when Mike leapt up from his chair and used his grip on her hand to pull her from her seat to tickle her sides, which in turn led to her counterattack until they were both breathless and giggling next to each other on the floor. Two sets of brown eyes met next to each other wearing tired smiles. Mike moved first to give Eleven a slow and gentle kiss. They had been improving their technique recently with all the time spent together. Kisses might be Eleven’s favorite thing. She couldn’t imagine anything could be better than kissing Mike. 

When they parted, they continued to stare at one another until Mike’s mother’s voice echoed from upstairs that Hopper had come for Jane. 

Both Eleven and Mike found that goodbye kisses were sort of bitter while still being sweet but they at least knew this time they would see each other in a matter of hours when Tuesday came. 

XxOxX

I have two more planned. I keep saying stuff like that but I have a sort of dark one shot in mind. I have to figure out how I’m going to plan it out. So that one might actually take longer. (Nothing to worry about. No one important is gonna be out from it). And a cute little pg-13 one. So read on. My muse is hungry for the feedback. Feed her and she shall reward you.


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